Out of the Woods (Fairy Tale Card Game and Book)

$259,744

pledged of $175,000 goal

3,771

backers

...there was a game designer called American McGee who having lived a life of dramatic ups and downs, decided to present a unique take on a selection of traditional fairy tales as a Table Top Card Game, Illustrated Book, Coloring Book, and Collection of Art. He hoped the lessons contained within might help others along their journey through the dark woods of existence.

With the success of this campaign we'll deliver a wicked card game, beautiful illustrated book, twisted coloring book, and turn "Out of the Woods" into an ongoing series of games, books, and original art.

Don't be eaten by wolves. Get Out of the Woods!

Miss the Campaign? Still in The Woods?

You can still get "Out of the Woods" products, find PayPal payment options, and links to BackerKit by visiting the "Out of the Woods" page on American McGee's Blog.

Out of the Woods is a SUCCESS! THANK YOU, everyone, who supported and backed the campaign. You've unlocked ALL THE STRETCH GOALS!

Gameplay is simple: Get rid of your cards to get Out of the Woods! The last player holding cards is trapped in the woods and eaten by wolves.

Out of the Woods is described by play testers as a dark twist on Uno. Do you love Uno? Do you love dark art? You'll LOVE Out of the Woods! Rawr!

OOTW - Card Box Conceptual Design

Professionally finished on heavyweight, high quality card stock, the cards are built for slamming down a play of the game. Holstered in a custom designed, dark fairy tale book themed box, featureing magnetic flip top, molded plastic interior, foiling, and UV lamenate, the playing card and box set are a visual centrepiece that's right at home on the altar of your favourite unholy deity, or your book shelf or coffee table. Either is good, we're not here to judge!

HOW TO PLAY:

Shuffle the deck and deal each player 8 cards then place the rest of the deck face down on the table. Starting with the dealer and going clockwise, take turns in placing one card face up on the table. You win by being the first person to get rid of all the cards from your hand, in essence you have escaped Out Of The Woods.

In games with 3 or 4 players, the remaining players can continue playing until only one person is left with cards in their hand, who is then declared the loser and is eaten by wolves. Om-nom-nom.

SO, HOW DO THE CARDS WORK?

There are 2 types of card, 'Action' and 'Character', and all of the cards belong to one of 5 Houses that is shown by the art on the border of each card. The Houses are...

The 'House' simply shows what card can be played next (matching House cards).

Action cards 'do things' and are used for attacking and defending, whereas Character cards have no abilities and can simply be played on top of a matching House. Let's go into a little more detail....

ACTION CARDS!

The Action cards are the strongest cards in the deck, use them to defend against a particularly malicious player or attack someone who looks like they might be about to win. Action cards can also be played on top of ANY card, regardless if the House matches or not.

OOTW Action Cards

CHARACTER CARDS!

As we know, there are 5 Houses in the game, but there are also 10 Stories (2 Stories for each House). They are as follows...

The purpose of Character cards is simply to be used for placing on top of a matching House. Unless they create an...

INSTANT WIN STORY COMBO!

There is one special rule for getting Out Of The Woods by using 4 Story cards in a row. In the midst of heated gameplay, say for example...

Player 1, puts down Hansel, then Player 2 plays The Oven.

If Player 3 has both The Witch and Grettel in their hand from the Hansel & Grettel Story, they can play both cards at once, completing the set of all 4 cards from that story in play.

Player 3 finishes the story, thus earning them an instant win!

(It is however possible that the next player in turn can play the Block card, forcing player 3 to pick both cards back up and remain in the game! The ultimate comeback move!)

Bottom line, the player that played the last card to complete a story escapes Out Of The Woods, with their throat intact no less!

Here's a snippet of Gameplay for you to sink your teeth into. For this example we've used a heated 2-Player head-to-head game format, showcasing the twists and turns available in your arsenal to get Out Of The Woods!

OOTW - 2 Player Gameplay Example

Want to see a video of American and Martin (and Lulu) playing "Out of the Woods" during a recent live-stream? We've got that for you right here!

The book will be a collection of 10 tales presented with beautiful illustrations and a selection of moral lessons which might help you navigate the dark woods of existence. Written in collaboration with R.J. Berg, the writer behind the "Alice" series. Those tales are:

Out Of The Woods Illustrated Book - Cover Art Concept - Not Finished Art / Subject to Change

As a book, Out Of The Woods sees the creatures inhabiting McGee's presentation of classic fairy tales brought to life in vivid detail, collected in a beautifully finished hard cover coffee table book. Printed on high-quality presentation weight stock, perfect bound and complete with a matte laminated cover, the book itself is work of art, housing works of art. A horde of professional artists directed by American and inspired by tales of yore combine to create a unique piece of macabre fiction. Bleeding at the edges with American's unique twist of beauty and lethality, the book tells the story, while the card game gives them teeth!

Regarding the book's theme and narrative presentation American says, "For the narrative theme, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about morality and behavioral development in a world less and less influenced by traditional cultural, religious, and societal pressures. I believe important life lessons must be passed to us by some method – religion, literature, caregivers, and/or painful experience. This was the original purpose of fairy-tales – to scare children (and adults) into acting morally and cautiously as they journeyed through life.

Could a collection of classic fairy tales accompanied by an exploration of moral lessons help parents communicate to their children regarding life's challenges and the necessity for preparedness? Might we adults also find use in a handy, agnostic primer in life's harsh realities and how to face them?

"Out of the Woods" contains a dual meaning in this context – one, that we’re never really out of the woods… in life, there’s always another Big Bad Wolf hiding along our paths. And, that while we’re in the woods, we must be prepared for the next wolf attack. Death is probably the only escape from the woods we’ll ever encounter – so best to be prepared for a life of tests and obstacles."

OOTW - Internal Pages Concepts - Not Final Art / Subject To Change

We'll produce a collection of art prints as large format posters (60cm x 50cm) based on the initial batch of artwork produced for the Kickstarter campaign. If the campaign is a success we can also offer additional artwork from the project for sale at a future date.

Out Of The Woods Launch Poster - Art By Alex Crowley & Alex Major

Should you want the following items in addition to the tier you pledge for, simply add the additional amount listed. Any combination of prints and amounts is acceptable. Then, when the survey comes around at the end of the Kickstarter, you'll indicate which poster(s) this amount is being spent towards (we're using BackerKit to keep track of all this and make your selection process easier).

Do you only want an art print? Enter $48 in the "Make a Pledge Without a Reward" box and you can spend that credit towards an art print when the campaign ends. Works with multiples - 2x art prints? Enter $96, etc. Want an art print and card game? Select the Card Game tier and add $48 on top of that. This can be done with multiple add-ons and with any tier.

Posters (ADD-ONS) - $40 + $8 intl. shipping ($48 each)

Add-On Poster Selection

Tier Exclusive Art Prints

47 black and white line-art versions of the illustrations, presented in a 215x285mm book with matte laminated cover (for protection), thick interior paper and perfect binding.

Coloring Book Art

Should you want the Coloring Book in addition to the tier you pledge for, simply add the additional amount listed. Any combination of coloring books, posters, and amounts is acceptable. Then, when the survey comes around at the end of the Kickstarter, you'll indicate the amount of your total pledge spent towards which add-ons (we're using BackerKit to keep track of all this and make your selection process easier).

Do you only want the coloring book? Enter $27 in the "Make a Pledge Without a Reward" box and you can spend that credit towards the coloring book when the campaign ends. Works with multiples - 2x coloring books? Enter $54, etc. Want the coloring book and card game? Select the Card Game tier and add $27 on top of that. This can be done with multiple add-ons and with any tier.

Coloring Book (ADD-ON) - $20 + $7 intl. shipping ($27 each)

Kickstarter Tiers

American has prepared a 350MB drop of design and animation materials from "Alice: Madness Returns" to be released to ALL backers upon successful completion of the "Out of the Woods" Kickstarter campaign.

This drop includes never before seen design and art documents for all game chapters along with animatics from throughout the game. This is a rare and exclusive peek behind the scenes of your favorite game!

Check out this example of one of the rare produciton animatics.

Our design and management team are located in San Francisco, Shanghai, and Melbourne. They've worked together previously on a wide range of successful game, book, and art projects.

Risks and challenges

We've previously run two successful Kickstarters (Akaneiro: Demon Hunters and Alice: Otherlands) and delivered the goals stated for those projects.

We have our art team, manufacturing partner (AdMagic) locked in, and fulfillment/logistics partner selected as well (ChinaDivision). We've not previously worked with the manufacturing partner, but they managed production for Exploding Kittens, so we feel based on that work we can expect reliability and quality.

From experience we know card art production, being the bulk of man-hours for the project, also represents the largest risk in terms of management and scheduling. While we've done everything we can to mitigate this risk, slips in art production scheduling could result in delivery delays for the physical rewards.

Lastly, we could all be eaten by wolves. We'll do our best to avoid that!